Similar measures in the Kentucky Legislature have died in the Democratic-led House for years. / The (Louisville, Ky.) Courier-Journal

by Scott Wartman, The Cincinnati Enquirer

by Scott Wartman, The Cincinnati Enquirer

FRANKFORT, Ky. -- A series of anti-abortion bills led to a lively hearing in the Kentucky Legislature on Thursday, with one lawmaker holding up an ultrasound of her grandson in an effort to urge the state to require women to look at such pictures of their fetuses.

In the end, a House committee voted down three bills, two that would require that a woman be shown a fetal ultrasound before having an abortion, and one that would require a face-to-face consultation with a medical professional.

In a two-hour hearing Thursday, an unlikely alliance of Democrats and Republicans gave impassioned pleas urging that the state House of Representatives be allowed to vote on the bills.

"Though you may not agree with this bill, I would respectfully request that we bring this to the floor so the people of Kentucky have a chance through their elected representatives to voice their opinion," said Marjorie Montgomery, director of Kentucky Right to Life.

Democrat Tommy Thompson, the House majority whip, advocated for one of the two fetal ultrasound bills presented at the hearing.

"They don't have to look at the image but have to be given the opportunity to look at it," said Thompson, pushing a bill that would require a fetal ultrasound.

But critics charged that the legislation was aimed at restricting a constitutionally protected procedure and cited concerns about interfering with medical decisions between a woman and her doctor.

"These bills are really about trying to make it more difficult, more onerous on women to get an abortion," Derek Selznick, director of the Reproductive Freedom Project for the American Civil Liberties Union of Kentucky, said afterward. "Really they come from a place of coercion and not consent."

The state has two abortion clinics, one in Lexington, the other in Louisville, and lawmakers said 3,500 abortions were performed statewide in 2013, 400 fewer than the previous year.

Similar measures have died in the Democratic-led House for years even though abortion opponents say the legislation would pass if it ever received a floor vote. One of this year's ultrasound bills had 62 co-sponsors, including lawmakers from both parties.

Republican Sen. Sara Beth Gregory, sponsor of the bill that would require a face-to-face consultation, called Thursday's vote a "sham" and said the committee was providing political cover for other Democrats in the House who claim to be anti-abortion while dodging votes on the issue.

"It's just a matter of this committee doing what it does every year - holding a staged meeting, rushing through testimony ... and then having a mockery of a vote," she said.